Chapter 3: Contributing Beyond The Baccalaureate

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) provided elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education to African Americans¹ when predominantly White institutions (PWIs) would not because of racist ideology (Anderson, 1988; Gasman, 2008). In the years since the first HBCU was established (1837, Cheyney University in Pennsylvania), these institutions have transformed into postsecondary institutions exclusively, and with the appropriate curricula, faculty, and accreditation standards. Throughout these structural changes, HBCUs have been a source of community uplift, but more practically they have contributed significantly to the postsecondary credentialing of African Americans. In fact, nearly 80% of Black degrees conferred prior to the 1960s were from HBCUs (Allen & Jewell, 2002; Hill, 1984). In fact, more than 50 years later, HBCUs are still overrepresented when it comes to providing African Americans a postsecondary education. For example, while HBCUs comprise only 3% of postsecondary institutions, they enroll and graduate nearly 20% of African American bachelor’s degrees annually (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2011).